Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Chair. Thank you for inviting me to appear before your committee. It is an honour for me to provide you with some of our observations on Bill C-293. There are four basic points I would like to make today about the potential implications of draft Bill C-293.

Foreign Affairs committee  Would you like me to respond to each question?

Foreign Affairs committee  My point is simply the one that you've in fact made, that over time experience has shown that more than one minister and more than one portfolio is involved in expending official development assistance. As I recall, there's one element later on in the act that refers to “the minister” in a reporting function, and I simply wanted to set the context for my subsequent remarks by reinforcing the role that at least three ministers and departments have made, including the two that have been called here today.

Foreign Affairs committee  Not completely. Let me present some clarifications that follow from the remarks I made. First of all, let's take the case of the international organizations. I take the spirit and the direction you've been spelling out about how the act could be implemented and would be applied, and I appreciate them.

Foreign Affairs committee  Let me add two more points in response. First of all, if I can go back to the “competent minister,” I also would like, in my first point, to call the committee's attention to the potential difficulties vis-à-vis IDRC and the IDRC Act. I wanted to put that on the record. They've written separately to the committee.

Foreign Affairs committee  The issue and the context of the points in which I raised it really reports to the IDRC's particular role under the act in terms of its reporting relationship. While it reports through a minister, it's actually decision-making bodies...it's accountable to its own board, so that's a factor.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, let me try to respond without being speculative, because I don't believe that's my role as an official, but to comment on factors that certainly have been at play and that I think you might want to take into account. One is that the existing definition of ODA as defined by the 30 countries that now are members of the OECD--and I think about 25 participate in the development assistance committee.

Foreign Affairs committee  In terms of international assistance, I will have to check. I can give you that number before the end of the meeting.

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely, international assistance is given that is not ODA-able. I will give you a very specific example, and we can elaborate a bit more. The assistance that Canada gives to the AU peace mission, the peacekeeping operation in Darfur, is assistance to a military operation. That falls outside the definition of ODA.

Foreign Affairs committee  If you don’t mind, I’m going to answer in English, because I speak a bit slowly. It's also easier, for me, frankly, to think through. My fourth point was that certainly in the area in which the Department of Foreign Affairs is currently programming, which is largely peace and security, those programs have a number of objectives.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would say not—

Foreign Affairs committee  I would say that the broad definition of “official development assistance” that's been negotiated by the OECD is one that Canada is comfortable with. We have participated in those negotiations. We see it as reflecting the reality on the ground, where you can be pursuing peace and security objectives as well as development objectives at the same time, often with the same project, but not always.

Foreign Affairs committee  Certainly for at least the last twenty years, Canada's development assistance, and that of other countries, has had those goals--democracy, human rights, environmental strengthening--as objectives. If that became incorporated into this act explicitly, as part of the definition, it would facilitate reporting more of the assistance that's presently given as directly meeting the stated goals of the act.

Foreign Affairs committee  When it comes time, I assume we're going to continue to be a member of the Organization of American States. I assume the member states will continue that program. When it comes time to report, and it's 100% ODA-able, the minister in question would have to explain to the committee that this is how international organizations work.

Foreign Affairs committee  If you take as the definition the one that is negotiated at the OECD, on average, it would be about once every three years, when the OECD reconvenes. At an earlier point in my career I participated and contributed to an OECD working group on conflict, peace, and development, which brought forward a series of important guidelines to help guide donor activity and aid activity in conflict situations.